Previously - Chapter 7 ***
Chapter 8***
November 13, 1995
“Thank you for taking the time to meet with me, Miss Seville,” Lex began. They were seated at the same overly large conference table from his meeting only last week. He relished the feel of having such an enormous room to help intimidate others. But Miss Anna Seville didn’t seem to be intimidated and he appreciated that about her. “I hear you have the skills I need.”
Lex thought there had been some mistake when she walked into the conference room with a wide smile and bobbing curls framing her face. He assumed she must be in the wrong place. Though tall, her thin stature and childlike features and mannerisms gave the impression that she was much younger. In fact, she looked like a high school cheerleader. Even her name seemed juvenile.
“You’re welcome.” She sent him a jovial smile as if she were in an entirely different kind of meeting than Lex. “I was told you need someone who can rewrite records.”
“Yes,” he confirmed, “and those records are numerous and protected through any number of security measures put in place.”
She giggled then, catching him off guard. “Security measures make me laugh!” She waved her hand as if security measures were something everyone jokes about.
“That’s… good to hear,” Lex stuttered, quickly recovering. “Carl will provide you with a list of what will need to be changed and where those records can be found. How much time will you need?” he asked with his eyebrows raised.
“Oh,” she pondered, tapping her chin, “probably just a few hours.”
“Really?” Lex said, surprise raising his eyebrows. “That fast?”
“Mr. Luthor,” she began, dipping her chin and speaking as if she were comforting a child, “It won’t take long to write code to rewrite the records. And, let’s be honest. I’ve already got code to get through almost all of the security systems out there.” She began examining her long, polished fingernails.
“But the list of changes is
quite extensive.”
It was her turn to raise her eyebrows and ask a question, now running the meeting. “What format will you be giving me this list of changes?”
“Carl?” he called.
Carl, who had been standing perched on the table along the wall, stepped forward and picked up a large file box holding numerous hanging files each crammed with more than a few folders and set it on the table in front of Miss Seville.
“Printed?” She scrunched her face and looked at the box like it was filled with something putrid. “Is there a digital copy of all this?”
Lex turned to Carl who gave a quick nod. “I presume so.”
Miss Seville smiled her overly nice smile again and clapped her hands together before placing them in her lap. “You’ll have to give me copies of all the digital files. All of this can be done with code, much of which is already written. It’s just a matter of organizing the code to do the right set of things,” she explained like it was nothing.
It was all well and good, but he needed to make sure that she would be able to take care of everything. “How will you handle systems that are internal?”
“You mean offline?” She smirked. “I just need a connection.”
“And how will you manage that?” Lex asked for clarification.
“Please,” she said waving his concerns away. “Have some faith in me, Mr. Luthor”
“Of course.” And he did. There would be vast amounts of changes to make, but this strange character sitting before him struck him as the kind of person who would take care of it. That was really the purpose of this meeting, to assess her character and abilities. “I will contact you when the procedure needs to take place.”
“I look forward to it.” She winked at him as she stood up from the table, looked at the file box with blatant disgust and sauntered from the room.
Lex laughed. This was the last piece of the puzzle. After months of plotting and planning, organizing and delegating, Lex was nearing the end of this miserable life that didn’t truly belong to him. It belonged to someone else, a man who had been caught, demoralized, treated like a criminal. Not Lex. Lex was powerful and intelligent and would not suffer the consequences of other’s actions any longer.
Soon he would truly have all he ever wanted.
Lois Lane.
***
November 15, 1995
“Wow.” Scott stared at the computer screen, blinking. “That’s fast.”
Superman stood behind him looking over Scott’s shoulder at the screen. They were testing his speed in space to see just how fast Superman could travel. Since he had to remain at slower speeds within the atmosphere, he flew to the moon. Scott just couldn’t believe how quickly he’d come back.
“I bet I can go even faster,” Superman said with a playful tone. This part was fun for him, he had told Scott the other day, he’d never done anything like this before. “How long will that make this trip?” he asked.
Scott punched several buttons on his computer keyboard before announcing, “Two and a half years there, two and a half years back, plus however much time you spend there…” Scott trailed off
“More than five years?” Superman didn’t sound pleased.
“Plus or minus,” Scott added, shrugging his shoulders.
“Well, I guess it could be worse.” The way Superman was always so positive was both good and bad. Scott appreciated that he was such a good guy, but at the same time, it made his job just a little harder. Knowing that this trip wasn’t actually taking place, he felt kind of bad for giving Superman the idea that Krypton might be out there…
Scott shook his head and changed the topic. Right now, the goal was to figure out how much oxygen Superman would need to take with him. They’d just established how much time he would travel. There was only one other piece of information they needed. “When was the last time you held your breath?” he asked.
“Yesterday, actually,” Superman turned and walked across the room to the table covered in equipment they were working on. “When I met with Lois and Clark, we tried it.”
“How’d that go?” Scott quirked a brow. It was so humorous to watch Superman pretend he was two people, always talking about his other self as if it were another person. Scott tried to imagine how Lois found out, and although he really wanted to know, he couldn’t ask and risk blowing his cover.
“We stopped after about thirty minutes,” Superman admitted before quickly adding, “But not because I felt like I needed a breath. Later that evening I spent several hours taking a breath every thirty minutes. It was fine.”
“No, I meant the conversation.” Scott chuckled.
“Well, Clark…” Superman shuffled a bit while sifting through the various items on the table in front of him. “He’s a little nervous it’s not worth it. I mean, if they were able to send me here, wouldn’t they be able to come here, too?”
The humanity in Superman’s response surprised Scott. “Why are you doing this if you’re so doubtful?”
Superman shrugged. “Well, Lois can be … pretty convincing.”
“Clark’s got it coming if he thinks he’ll wear the pants in that relationship,” Scott remarked flippantly.
Superman chuckling and it surprised Scott. He hadn’t ever really thought about it, but he supposed there might be more to Superman. “He knows that,” Superman assured. “But she’s got a point. She thinks I should see if any of my relatives might be out there. It would be nice to not think you’re the only one left of your … people.”
Scott never really considered what this trip might mean for Superman and surprised himself in realizing that assuming Superman would feel nothing about it was unreasonable. Scott hadn’t realized just how
human Superman was. He shook these thoughts from his head. Becoming sympathetic to Superman would not serve him well.
“Just don’t find out you have a sister.” His attempt to change the conversation was met with a lift of a questioning eyebrow.
“Oh?” Superman wondered aloud. “Sounds like you speak from experience.”
Scott shook his head. “They are cute sometimes and a pain in the butt the rest of the time,” he explained, though he didn’t know why. “Yeah, this one’s a bit younger than me and dating … one of my bosses. I just don’t like it.”
Superman nodded slowly as if he could possibly understand what it was like to have a sister dating someone he didn’t like. “What can you do?”
That was precisely what Scott had been wondering. He rolled his eyes. “I know right? Let’s get back to this here,” Scott redirected, pointing to the computer screen in front of him. “So, thirty minutes?”
“Yeah,” verified Superman.
Scott pulled a pencil from behind his ear and jotted a few things down on the pad of paper next to him.
“Okay,” he started, running the numbers through his head while simultaneously writing them down. “So, two breaths an hour…87600 breaths over your trip… plus or minus. Average breath size … Oh that was yesterday.” Scott shuffled through some papers before finding the figure he needed. “What was R? … by 31.998 …. This is for liquid oxygen…” He paused and looked something up in a large book on the shelf above the computer screen, did one more calculation and smiled at Superman. “Looks like you need about three liters.”
“Plus or minus?” Superman mocked.
He had a sense of humor, too. How many people know about this Superman? “Yeah.” He laughed. “That won’t be too difficult to manage.”
“Not at all.”
Superman stepped away then and went to another table to view the equipment that was being prepared. Scott followed and, upon seeing Superman’s knit brows, reached for a stack of diagrams.
“Here’s what we’re building for you.” He laid the diagrams flat on the table and began pointing as he explained. “We’ve got space here for your air supply plus this snazzy piece of genius that you can use to refill it should you be in a place where you can.” Scott picked up the device and held it out to Superman. When Superman didn’t take it, he set it back down on the table and continued. “This will hold your food…if you can call it that…sustenance is all it really is, compact though, so you can take plenty of it for once you’re too far from our sun. Here’s a place for anything you might want to take… and this will house your communication system. Eventually it won’t work, but it will be nice to have on your way out and you can give us a heads up on your way back.”
Superman had a brooding look on his face as he gave a quick not and turned away. “Sounds like everything’s been taken care of then,” he said before disappearing as quickly as he had arrived.
For a moment, Scott considered whether this was too much. Had he crossed that line he’d set for himself? But he had his family to think of and they weren’t
killing the hero, just relocating him. Scott swallowed his remorse and focused instead on what was left to be done.
***
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